Extremities – Physical Examination of the Newborn (Nursing)

00:01 Now let's look at symmetry in the extremities in general.

00:04 So making sure in terms of range of motion, that there is symmetry in terms of movement, in terms of color, in terms of strength, all of those things should be even.

00:16 So we're going to check range of motion, and we're going to check the number of digits or their five fingers, or six fingers, or five fingers and a supernumerary digit, or a skin tag or something that may indicate that there was an extra digit there.

00:30 Either on the hand or the feet.

00:33 Now let's talk about an assessment that could be done to assess for hip dislocation.

00:39 This would especially be important for babies that perhaps experienced a breech delivery or any other signs that there may be some abnormalities.

00:47 So this procedure is called Ortolan and Barlow.

00:50 And what happens with this assessment is that the provider will actually hold the lower extremities and place their fingers on the greater trochanter.

00:59 And once they do that, they will externally rotate the legs outward and feel for a click.

01:05 That indicates that the hips have dislocated.

01:08 So they'll push in and then externally rotate the hips out.

01:12 And then with Barlow will rotate the legs back in.

01:16 And so if you feel the hips sort of go back into the proper socket, then that would let you know that there is an incident of hip dislocation, Ortolani and Barlow.

01:27 So again, this is not something the nurse typically will do.

01:31 And we've found that we've actually caused more damage by doing this.

01:34 So this is an assessment that is going to be performed by the provider, but the nurse should know what it is.